Manning's Statement After Verdict #love

Associated Press — FORT MEADE, Md. — The text of U.S. Army Pfc. Bradley Manning’s statement that will be sent to the president, as read by defense attorney David Coombs following Manning’s sentencing Wednesday, below:

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If you haven't read it in it's entirety it is all here. It is beautiful. Thank you Bradley!

Here is a quote you might not have seen: "When these cries of patriotism drown out any logically based dissension, it is usually the American soldier that is given the order to carry out some ill-conceived mission."

Manning's statement, in full:

The decisions that I made in 2010 were made out of a concern for my country and the world that we live in. Since the tragic events of 9/11, our country has been at war. We’ve been at war with an enemy that chooses not to meet us on any traditional battlefield, and due to this fact we’ve had to alter our methods of combating the risks posed to us and our way of life.

I initially agreed with these methods and chose to volunteer to help defend my country. It was not until I was in Iraq and reading secret military reports on a daily basis that I started to question the morality of what we were doing.

It was at this time I realized that (in) our efforts to meet the risk posed to us by the enemy, we have forgotten our humanity.

We consciously elected to devalue human life both in Iraq and Afghanistan. When we engaged those that we perceived were the enemy, we sometimes killed innocent civilians. Whenever we killed innocent civilians, instead of accepting responsibility for our conduct, we elected to hide behind the veil of national security and classified information in order to avoid any public accountability.

In our zeal to kill the enemy, we internally debated the definition of torture. We held individuals at Guantanamo for years without due process. We inexplicably turned a blind eye to torture and executions by the Iraqi government. And we stomached countless other acts in the name of our war on terror.

Patriotism is often the cry extolled when morally questionable acts are advocated by those in power. When these cries of patriotism drown out any logically based dissension, it is usually the American soldier that is given the order to carry out some ill-conceived mission.

Our nation has had similar dark moments for the virtues of democracy — the Trail of Tears, the Dred Scott decision, McCarthyism, and the Japanese-American internment camps — to mention a few. I am confident that many of the actions since 9/11 will one day be viewed in a similar light.

As the late Howard Zinn once said, “There is not a flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people.”

I understand that my actions violated the law; I regret if my actions hurt anyone or harmed the United States. It was never my intent to hurt anyone. I only wanted to help people. When I chose to disclose classified information, I did so out of a love for my country and a sense of duty to others.

If you deny my request for a pardon, I will serve my time knowing that sometimes you have to pay a heavy price to live in a free society.

I will gladly pay that price if it means we could have a country that is truly conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all women and men are created equal.

with the masses. No one will pay any attention to what he shed light on, they will only focus on his transgender issue and therefore paint him as a whacko. Sorry, but this is now a lost cause and a distraction because of his parallel issue. Probably should be removed from the front page. Just sayin, not judgin :)

On today's Peter Schiff Show, he was talking about how the Bradley Manning case was different from the Snowden case because Snowden was a whistleblower while Manning actually did release classified info. In other words, Schiff made it sounds like the Manning jail sentence might be justified. (As an aside, I'm very confident that Schiff would NOT endorse the torture that Manning had to endure).

I don't know what classified info that Schiff is referring to specifically but I was very surprised to hear him to have that opinion of Bradley Manning's actions. I guess it's also possible that I just don't know the whole story of what Manning released.

That is the reason Manning wrote that letter. He acknowledged his error in action and explained why he did. Manning also apologized.

In my eyes, he really didn't understand what he was doing. He is pretty young, kinda mental and certainly not the brightest lightbulb in the box.

That being said... he still broke the law. As much as Ill get criticized here, we must hold everyone accountable for their actions. Just because he enlightened us to what was really going on does not mean he should have exposed that much information. Whistleblowing should be specific. Releasing cables in mass is foolish. Targeting wrong doing is what should be protected.

Put the shoe on the other foot. We dont want the NSA to have our information do we? We want them to target individuals. Whistleblowers should be held to the same standard.

Manning did do our nation a great service but he still made stupid mistakes.

Yes and if more more people like him broke all the unfair, unjust, immoral and evil laws in this country just maybe we would have a taste of freedom and get rid of the ruling class who live off us. Manning did more for freedom than any politician ruling now.

If not, any laws he broke are unjust and he did nothing wrong. Please tell me one thing that he did that violated a law that would exist in a libertarian society. Can you provide any evidence that suggests that his actions hurt someone or violated property rights?

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"All our words are but crumbs that fall down from the feast of the mind." - Khalil Gibran
"The Perfect Man has no self; the Holy Man has no merit; the Sage has no fame." - Chuang Tzu

He released cables that did not pertain to wrongdoing. I remember one about a diplomat making fun of another diplomat. Those things hurt our relations and served absolutely no purpose.

Assange was out to embarrass the United States, not expose wrongdoing. I honestly feel that Manning is a hero for exposing how wicked the Iraq war is. I also feel Assange used him as a pawn for his own bloated ego. If we want to hold government accountable.. we need to hold others accountable too.

Whistleblowing should be protected if it targeting wrongdoing. Releasing classified information in mass is wrong and against the law.

Manning has very likely been chemically abused while in custody. Personally, I would listen to the words from his mouth or read the words written by his hand with extreme skepticism. Until Manning is totally free from custody for YEARS and able to visit private doctors, I'd be very hesitant to accept the words from an obviously tortured man.

Essentially causes a mind to fracture. I would not be surprised if this was the case. I'm not saying that Manning didn't have questions about himself, but rather that the conditions and probably ridicule were severe psychological forces.

"Just another criminal begging to be let off for what he did. Put him in prison and take away his rights.
He has earned our scorn."

Just another case of shooting the messenger. Lets not pay attention to the crimes that Bradley Manning exposed. Just keep focusing on your TV and listen to the talking heads. Of course, telling on someone for murdering innocent civilians is way more outrageous then the actual murder that was committed. (sarcasm) I would also like to know other than how Manning did it, what other way is there to bring these crimes to light? I mean do people really think if the military is condoning these murders that they will do anything about it if they are reported back to them? I seriously hope i'm alive to see this government burn to the ground.

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"What light is to the eyes - what air is to the lungs - what love is to the heart, liberty is to the soul of man."
-Robert Green Ingersoll

cares that he quoted Howard Zinn? Isn't this a liberty movement? Wasn't Howard Zinn a socialist? Why does that not matter to anyone on the DailyPaul? I could have sworn this was a sight dedicated to helping further liberty, and here we are debating why this kid may or may not have wanted to change genders, and so on and so forth.

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Free market capitalism isn't right for America because it works better. It's right because it's free (and it works better).

"McCarthyism"...anyone that has been paying attention fully understands at this point that McCarthy was right...our government was being infiltrated with communists and they have been very successful instituting their manifesto of socialism...oops I mean communism. Clearly he doesn't understand either that our enemy was a made up phantom and the real enemy to our government has been the American people all along... This whole letter sounds off to me and although he is correct to call out our government/military's disgusting and disgraceful practice of torture and murder of civilians, it also reinforces the notion that the war itself and our middle eastern terrorist enemies are legit., but just being waged incorrectly...not sure what to make of it.

Its quite easy to cast off anyone or anything that doesn't exactly fit your philosophy on the world. (believe me i do it consciously and unconsciously every day.) With that said, try to look for the good in things, because if you always look for the bad I can guarantee you will find it.

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"What light is to the eyes - what air is to the lungs - what love is to the heart, liberty is to the soul of man."
-Robert Green Ingersoll

Manning understood that “In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956

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